On any other day it would have been a relaxing afternoon on her farm on the outskirts of Prospect Hill in South Australia.

But on this day the blackberry bushes that bordered her property were exploding in flames, thick smoke choked the air, as Joyce was tried to calm her beloved cows.

Before the flames came

"It was a shocking day," 81-year-old Joyce Smart recalls as she sits outside a memorial built to commemorate the event.

"The wind was about 100 kilometres an hour, and the temperature was 100 degrees (37 degrees Celcius)."

Local firefighters had spent the days leading up to Ash Wednesday in 1983 extinguishing small fires in the surrounding forests.

"Most of our CFS men were exhausted, and then along comes this dreadful fire."

Joyce still remembers seeing the flames and smoke approaching from McLaren Flat and travelled down towards Currency Creek before a southerly change pushed the flames towards Prospect Hill.

As the fire swept over Ashbourne, about 8 kilometres southeast of Prospect Hill, Joyce said the area was filled with a noise that sounded like a group of jet planes descending on the town.

"It was something that I will never ever forget."

As the smoke began to fill the air, Joyce jumped in her trusty Mini Moke, with two dogs and her pet possum on board, and headed for the top of a paddock where her dairy cows had cornered themselves against a thick crop of black berry bushes.

The car was full of baling string, and as Joyce franticly drove towards her house she madly tossed the string out to avoid a fire in the car.

In a field of flames

Reaching the corner, she called the cows, and they ran through the flames to her.

As the cows began to mill around her, Joyce noticed a few new additions.

Her bull had found the herd, and had been joined by an almost two metre tall grey kangaroo that was also searching for refuge.

"As the fire come all around us, it just went black.

"You couldn't see a thing."

As the firestorm howled around the mixed herd, two calves had wandered up towards the fire front.

Joyce had resigned to the belief that she had lost the calves to the fire when she felt something hit her in the back of the leg.

The calves had found her and nestled in to her in search of protection.

"They huddled in close to me like I was an old cow," Joyce said with a hearty laugh following.

In the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, it was estimated that over 250,000 livestock animals were killed.

Joyce still proudly recalls she did not lose one.

"I never lost any of them; the whole 42 head of cattle, I saved them."

The kangaroo stayed on to become a permanent resident on her property, often standing side-by-side with the cows to eat when food drops were made in the weeks after the fire.

She remembers the kangaroo left for a few days after the fire, to return later with a female grey.

A pairing she now believes is responsible for a flourishing kangaroo colony that now exists on her property.

Discovering the loss

Once the fire front had passed, Joyce headed back to her home to see what had survived.

As she passed her hey shed, which had become engulfed in flames, she spotted her home.

At first glance it looked untouched.

"I rushed and opened the door, and it was all alight inside, and everything just exploded."

Joyce stepped through the flames to reclaim a photograph that hung on the wall of her with her sister.

"I remember trying to rub the flames off it to get out the door as quick as I could."

She also grabbed a perpetual trophy that she had recently won in a local photographic competition.

"I thought 'gee, I've got to save that, that's not really mine'."

The same trophy is still passed on each year to local budding nature photographers.

Sifting through the ashes

Returning to the site of her home, Joyce kicked through the ashes in search of anything that resembled her former life.

To her surprise, and now amusement, one item remained unscathed as she flipped over a sheet of corrugated iron.

"Underneath, in all these ashes, was one of my pairs of pepper and salt shakers."

A comical squirrel, holding an acorn in each hand, beamed a smile back at her.

"I thought 'gee, if he can survive that fire and he's still standing there, he's cupboards been burnt all around him and all my trophies had all melted around him', I thought well that has really given me hope."

Joyce wept as she held the squirrel in her hands.

30 years later it still takes pride of place in Joyce's rebuilt home.

Joyce was found the following day by a group of men who were searching the ruins of homes for survivors and bodies, and she was directed to present herself in Meadows to have her name marked of and receive medical attention.

It wasn't until she presented at the council chambers that she was made aware of her facial burns.

"I had all my eyebrows burnt off and my eyelashes and everything."

The recovery

Joyce was amazed by the outpouring of support from people, who is some circumstance drove hundreds of kilometres, to help the township rebuild.

She laughs as she recalls how a photographic club from Murray Bridge helped to rebuild fencing that had been destroyed in the fire.

"They weren't fencing people, but I was there and telling them what to do," she recalled with a chuckle.

"Part of that fence is still there and I wouldn't part with that."

A tear forms in her eye when she recalls the kindness of a young boy who had travelled up from Adelaide with his parents.

The boy had seen a photo of Joyce and her dog Sally standing in front of the shell of her home, and had brought them a can of dog food to ensure Sally did not go hungry.

Together, they sifted through the ashes and found a bowl, clean the silt from it, and sat while Sally tucked in to the food.

Joyce often wonders about the kind boy, who would now be close to 40 years old.

Memories of the fires maintained

Those that lived through the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 in Prospect Hill will never forget.

Those that visit the town can witness some of the stories shared by local residents in an Ash Wednesday museum curated by Meredith Newman.

On the day the fire swept the countryside, Meredith was an 11-year-old school student living on the other side of Meadows.

She could see the flames and smoke billowing from the Prospect Hill fires as her family prepared for the worst.

"I remember having to pack up a few valuables and getting photos together and thinking that we might have to evacuate or Mum and Dad saying we might have to jump in the dam if the fire comes."

Fortunately the conditions calmed and the fires stopped before they reached them.

Years later Meredith moved into the Prospect Hill area, and on the 25th anniversary of Ash Wednesday, opened the Ash Wednesday museum.

The museum is a collection of artefacts, photographs and stories from local survivors and a tribute to two locals who lost their lives in the blaze.

The Prospect Hill Community Association museum is open Sunday afternoons from 2:00pm till 4:00pm from the end of May till the end of August, and 2:00pm till 5:00pm on Sundays for the rest of the year.

It is open by appointment only during the week.

Entry cost is $5.00 for adults and $1.00 for children, with more details available on the Museum website.